In this edition of Entre Nous, we speak to Mié Kohiyama and Dr Etienne Krug about how to fight the scourge of violence against children. Each year an estimated one billion children experience some form of violence, which includes physical, emotional or sexual abuse. This week, Colombia's capital Bogota is holding the first-ever international conference aimed at ending violence against children.
A programme produced by Amanda Alexander, Marina Pajovic and Georgina Robertson.
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A programme produced by Amanda Alexander, Marina Pajovic and Georgina Robertson.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Time now for our Entre Nous segment, and today we're going to be focusing on a landmark conference
00:04kicking off in Colombia's capital, aimed at ending violence against children. Each year,
00:10an estimated one billion children experience some form of violence, which includes physical,
00:16emotional or sexual abuse. The governments of Colombia and Sweden have joined forces along
00:23with UN agencies, including the World Health Organization, for the first ever ministerial
00:28conference to take place in Bogota. We can now bring in Mie Kohiyama, an activist in children's
00:34rights and survivor herself. We can also join by Dr Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of
00:41Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization. Thank you both so much
00:45for joining us on the program today. Mie, I'd like to start with you. Tell us your story.
00:51So, I'm a survivor of childhood sexual violence. I was assaulted by an adult cousin when I was five,
00:59and I had 32 years of repressed memory. And I was the first victim in France to go to the Supreme
01:07Court to acknowledge a mechanism that's called repressed memory that prevented me to file a
01:17complaint in the times limit of statute of limitations. And now I have become a child
01:26rights activist. I'm in the collective movement and a brave movement executive member. Brave
01:32movement is the first international survivor's movement that is proud to be a part of the
01:39conference today in Bogota. Dr Etienne Krug, what exactly is a repressed memory for viewers who
01:45don't know? Morning from Bogota. Repressed memory is when the body defends itself from the trauma
01:54that somebody may have lived, like in Mie's case, sexual abuse. And where, as the words say,
02:02that the memory is just suppressed and the body blocks out that event for a very long time until
02:11at some stage it comes back and the person has to deal with all of the consequences of that.
02:16And Mie, just so I can understand well, in your adult life when you had this flashback
02:25of these memories, how did you go about helping yourself? Did you go seek therapy?
02:30That's a very good question. Like many survivors of childhood sexual violence,
02:37I search for therapists, but there is a study in France that shows that
02:44survivors of childhood sexual violence, it takes 13 years to find the right trauma-informed
02:51therapist. So it's a very long road for a survivor. And one of the pillars of our action of
02:57the brave movement is health care for survivors. And it's a very long road and it's a very difficult
03:04one. Dr. Kroeg, some of the health risks, what are some of the health risks associated with
03:10violence against children? The health risks associated with violence are quite broad.
03:17We know that, of course, there is the injuries and sometimes the death, but the mental health
03:22impact is very often huge with people, children having been a victim of violence, having nightmares,
03:28anxieties, but also depression later in life, all the way up to suicide sometimes. We also know that
03:34victims of violence are more likely to smoke, to abuse alcohol, drugs, which are risk factors for
03:40cancer and cardiovascular diseases. We also know that victims of sexual violence can suffer
03:46sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies. So we're talking about a very
03:51big public health issue. In addition to public health, violence also has an impact on educational
03:57achievements. Victims of violence often have trouble, difficulties at school, which has an
04:02impact on their later employment. So this is a very big societal issue as well. I'm just curious
04:09to either one of you, Mia, let me go across and ask you this question, because how do you go about
04:15policing violence against children, considering that most children are growing up in households
04:20and children, it's difficult to get adults to talk and it's even more difficult to get children to
04:25talk? Well, as you know, the private is politic in this matter, because we have to be aware that
04:35each one of us should have in mind the superior interest of the child. And it's true that
04:40intra-familial violence and the sexual violence on children happen mostly in the really close
04:46circle with the children. But it's beginning to change. In France, we had the Me Too incest,
04:52survivors of intra-familial violence, incest are beginning to talk. The authorities,
04:59French authorities, but authorities all around the world are becoming aware of this issue. And I want
05:04to say that intra-familial sexual violence is major in matters of sexual violence, and it's
05:11also major in matters of sexual violence online, because those parents or caregivers that are
05:18committing the crimes in the real life are then sharing the images of the children online. And
05:24therefore we have to protect them. We have to find legislation that are more protective. And it's a
05:31very, very important issue. In 2023, 300 million children have experienced some kind of sexual
05:38violence online. Dr. Krug, how do you go about educating children in a very delicate way?
05:48Well, first of all, it's not so much about educating children. It's our duty as adults to
05:54take responsibility for this issue and to put in place all of the prevention measures that we do
06:00know work. And there's a whole series of them that we can implement. And of course, we need to help
06:05children to come forward, to understand. Exactly, that's what I meant.
06:08To be able, yeah, to be able to speak about these things. So I think the dialogues we are having
06:13like today and in many other fora, breaking the taboo around violence against children,
06:19because as me very rightfully just said, and you as well, this is happening behind closed doors,
06:26at home, at school, in clergy environments, in sports environments. We need to break the
06:33taboo around that and facilitate the dialogue so that children can come forward much earlier.
06:38Mie, what are you hoping this gathering in Bogota will achieve?
06:44Well, first of all, it's a momentum. Really, it's fantastic to be, we are a lot of survivors
06:52are here, a lot of youth are mobilized here. For the first time, 130 ministers,
06:57countries and ministers are here. So it's a really historical moment. And what we hope
07:02are concrete and bold engagements followed by resources, by political will to implement those
07:10engagements. And we'll be there even after the conference as civil society to hold governments
07:17accountable for their engagements in Bogota. Dr. Krug, final word from you. What sort of
07:23pledges are you expecting to get made here? You know, we're very excited. As Mie said,
07:29this is going to be a turning point. When we embarked two years ago on planning this conference,
07:34we had no idea if people would come. We have 130 countries, 80 ministers, 1,000 people from
07:41all over the world coming. And over 101 countries have made pledges. What's a pledge? A pledge is
07:49really an official promise. They're going to make it today in public in the conference room
07:54of taking action. For example, 10 countries are going to pledge to ban corporal punishment
08:00in all settings. This is a milestone because it has taken 70 years since the first one did it,
08:08and we only have 60 countries now who've done it. And 10 more in one conference is going to
08:12be fantastic. Another series of countries are going to pledge to improve parenting programs.
08:17We know that one of the best strategies to address violence against children is to work
08:21with parents for having better parenting. And there's a whole series of other pledges
08:26around better services for the victims, better data collection systems, etc. Finally, we also
08:31know there's going to be some financial announcements of quite an important magnitude for
08:35this field. So we're very much looking forward to that. And of course, working with all of those
08:40who make pledges to follow up and help them implement them. Okay. Mie and Dr. Etienne
08:47Krug, thank you both for joining us on the program today. Really appreciate you both taking the time.